Day 256 | near Watthanganya Bluff: as I continue on my almost solitary road now turned to dust
81 km | Heading west total: 11,788 km
Happy birthday, H.
We managed to spend about 18 years together in a roller coaster of a partnership.
I went to her 20th birthday up at Waipuk (urau) and met a fair proportion of her family in one intense go.
We had a great time together: driving around the North Island in the old Jag, hanging around Buenos Aires for months during one of Argentina’s periods of madcap inflation, hosting big opening night parties for our furniture exhibitions at our business.
I loved the whacky stories: one rich woman was so upset by the failure of her husband to buy her a new car when he got himself one went out and got new drapes for the mansion for about $30k: the hugely expensive silk drops shrank dramatically overnight in Auckland’s humidity … oops … but fortunately the makers of the curtains had incorporated huge turnups on the bottom (to increase the fabric length at $180 a metre) and she got out of that one.
The craziness of working as a draughtperson in London for a cigar smoking Jag driving toff.
And creating that inspiring, non timber, furniture down in Hobart.
There really was never a dull moment.
There were bad times as well: her brother M’s death following a car accident not his fault, our business not really taking off as it should have. And her health has taken a bad turn on her return to NZ.
I really hope it all works out well.
Happy birthday gal.